Because we keep electing the wrong people to lead us. Or at least letting them win. The smart Filipinos have almost no interest in running for office or applying for government positions. Most are trying to get out of the country for better opportunities.
Only the greedy and power-hungry people tend to run for office these days. And they only do it for the salary and the backroom deals they can get with it. I mean think about it, when was the last time your barangay official did something that truly helped the community? Because in my barangay, I can’t think of a single thing.
All they do is make waiting sheds and basketball courts, do some roadside “beautification” projects here and there, organize some festivals, and so on, and that’s it. Worse still, almost all of those things are usually accompanied by large posters and signs advertising the local official. As if it was their money that they used for these projects, instead of our taxes.
None of the funds are used for actual helpful things like creating a garbage collection system, creating parks, building infrastructure, libraries, creating livelihood industries. None. None of our cities even have recognizable landmarks. All we have are godawful deformed cement “monuments” and the ever-present braindead “I LOVE <insertcitynamehere>” giant letters. Even our national airport looks like a frigging bus station.
In comparison to the driven and visionary politicians during the early years after our independence, all of the modern politicians today are crap. Politicians today have zero imagination, zero forward thinking, zero initiative. There is no pride in their work, at all. They just push paper around and take pictures with babies. I doubt they even know anything about how other countries are run. Weird, because they usually come from families that have visited better-run countries abroad, and they still come home learning nothing. When they leave office, they leave it exactly the same as it was, or worse. Zero progress.
Worse is how they create dynasties that stay in power for decades. By violence and intimidation, edging out far more deserving leaders. The Maguindanao massacre by the Ampatuan clan is just one example.
There are some politicians who break the mold. Mostly younger ones. But they are few and far in between.
For context: we invented/pioneered several industries and products like nata de coco, large-scale macapuno production, warm water seaweed production, beer production in Asia, water buffalo dairy farming, tropical coffee farming, buri palm millinery and weaving, and so on. But in the last two decades, countries like China and Indonesia are now the leading producers of those resources, not us. We had so many things that we were among the first to do in Asia. From universities, to commercial airliners, newspapers and television, various factories, the theater and movie industry, the auto industry, electric trams, nuclear power plants... what happened to all of them?
I can’t even remember the last time someone built new infrastructure like irrigation canals or dams. The NFA rice warehouses in our province is a joke. Government project buildings are rotting or in ruins. There was even a project near our town for kickstarting a sheep industry, started in the 70s or 80s. The last time I saw sheep in it was when I was a kid in the 90s. Now it’s an empty rusting facility.
I had hoped Duterte would be the one. He promised trains (finally! after decades), a subway system, development of provincial cities, focus on other regions of the Philippines (not just NCR), and so on. But so few have materialized. He was more focused on petty bickering and jailing his critics, his idiotic drug war, and pretending like China wasn’t a threat. Even Marawi still lies in ruins, wrapped in red tape and political clans warring with each other.
Marcos was similarly visionary and grandiose in his plans. But again he got drunk on power and ultranationalism.
In the next election, I’m vowing to vote only for young people, preferably those that don’t come from political dynasties. I’m sick and tired of the TraPo. If that still doesn’t work, I’m leaving the country.
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